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| I have decided to try to keep a log over my activities in Japan so that my friends and family can keep track of what is going on in my life. Also it might provide an intresting introduction to Japan and its culture for people who haven't been there. I will try to update once a week and complement the text with pictures taken with my digital camera throughout my intended year-long stay in Japan. |
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| March 24 2001, From Fukuoka to Osaka - Earthquake |
| This
morning I took the train to Osaka to visit my friend Tsuyoshi who I got
to know at the university in Sapporo last year. The plan was that I
would call him from the Osaka station before I took the train to the
smaller station colse to where he lives so that he would be there in
time to pick me up. According to plan I would arrive at Osaka at
approximately 19:00 and when he had picked me up we would go out
together with his friends (because that was his plans before I called
him yesterday evening letting him
know I was coming today - sorry!!!).
As expected I ended up on the wrong train or rather the wrong station somehow when I took the train at around 08:00 this morning. Instead of the train I was supposed to take I had to take one an hour later which would make me miss the train I was to change to later and mess up the entire time schedule Emma had made up for me. Strangely enough that train turned out to be the very train I was supposed to change to later so it worked out fine. My eleven hour trip would go along as planned anyway.Or so I thought...
I got hold of Tsuyoshi and took the train to his station where I arrived at 22:00. On the train was an american skateboarder who asked if I was going to Kyoto and than said it was cool when I said I wasn´t. Then he got off at the same station as I with his girlfriend and said "Welcome to my city dude!". When we got home to Tsuyoshi´s family´s apartment they welcomed me and were very sweet. I got some good food and went to bed at a futon in the japanese style room. A great end of a somewhat tiresome day.
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© Erik Andersson 2001
Halfway to Osaka the train made a long
stop at a station and everybody got agitated and changed trains and I
sat there and wondered what had happened. It turned out there had been
an earthquake with unknown magnitude (I later learned that the magnitude
was 6.4) near Hiroshima (where I had passed a couple of hours earlier) and that all trains - even shinkansen - stood still until everything was ok. When the train finally
left the station after an hour it moved extremely slowly and it took
more than one and a half hours to go just a few stations until we got to
Okuyama where I was to change to another train. I tried to call Tsuyoshi
but there was only a message that there was no connection. Damn! At the
next change there was people at the phones so I couldn´t call then
either. Damn! Now I am on the train to Osaka and the time is 20:50. Oh,
if I had a cell-phone!
The